Father of France

Chapter 11 North African Landscape
“Coman,” Admiral Dragon murmured helplessly, “family matters are indeed quite complicated, and as a father, I truly…”

“I can understand. You didn’t cheat on me when your mother was alive, so what can I say about her passing? As for Adile? I can understand that too. Men will always like eighteen-year-old women.”

Koman gestured to stop, "Let's not talk about family matters. Is there a map in the study?"

Koman's family life was actually quite good at first. He had both parents and was the second of three brothers. However, his older brother proved a social consensus: those who drown are usually good swimmers. He met with an accident.

Cuomo had never actually met this older brother who only existed in his words, so he always called him by the wrong name.

Shortly after Como was born, his mother passed away, leaving only the father and his two sons in the family.

Whether it was due to the change in environment in Syria or some other similar cause of fatigue, General Dragon began to experience a variety of health problems three years ago.

However, it now appears that the problem was actually caused by overwork, which led to a problem with the immune system and resulted in a sickly state.

However, this illness could not be detected in that era. At that time, Dracon was always worried that he would not live long. It was because of this, coupled with Coman's constant whispers in his ear, that Dracon, who felt that he had a problem with his body, was persuaded to launch a coup during the Syrian-Lebanese campaign, imprisoning Commander Henry and the command of the French army in Syria.

It was from that time that Adile entered the family. Her younger brother, Como, certainly couldn't accept this new woman, and even now at ten years old, it's still difficult for him.

So, the part about Koman's family is that it's a little dramatic, because his stepmother is a year older than him.

However, considering that General Fontaine, a victim of the White Feather Movement, also found a woman in Syria who was on equal footing with his wife, and that such things were not uncommon among high-ranking colonial officials, it doesn't seem so dramatic.

Koman initially thought he had obtained the template for the General of the Heavenly Strategy, but after his cheap older brother got a cramp while swimming, he discovered that the template seemed to be transforming into the Prince Jing, who raised three thousand elite soldiers.

Dragon, with his back to Corman, was looking for a map. He didn't think Corman was on the verge of a volcanic eruption. Knowing his son as he did, he figured Corman was just too lazy to think about it.

Admiral Dragon spread out a map of the Mediterranean on the table and examined the current situation with Koeman. The situation of the world war had actually been very clear since last year or even earlier, at least in the Mediterranean theater. Algeria was recaptured at the end of 1942, and the Axis powers were driven out of North Africa in the first half of last year.

In this process, French Syria, as one of the first heavily mobilized Free French troops, deserves the credit of Dracon, even if he didn't have any spectacular command skills.

It was mainly the United States that gave the opportunity. In fact, considering the system of a country, the United States' national power is converted into military power quite slowly. The entire industrial system also has many problems. The United States' performance in the world wars was not worthy of its national power. Although conscription was fast, military production did not meet the capabilities of a major belligerent country in a world war.

Koeman recalled that the cost of various American weapons remained unchanged from beginning to end. It is known that the cost of weapons manufacturing may be higher at the beginning, but once mass production begins, the production cost gradually decreases. However, this was not the case for the United States. Except for the United States itself, the major participating countries did not have the same purchase price for the first fighter jet to the ten thousandth fighter jet.

This situation could be interpreted as the US completing the mission without exerting its full strength, but from another perspective, it is indeed unworthy of its position. "The North African Axis powers have been expelled, and regarding the occupation of Libya, we firmly maintained our east-west occupation strategy in our dialogue with the British."

Dragon pointed to the center of the Libyan map, which looked as if the entire country had been split in two, with Tripoli and Benghazi under the control of the French and British forces respectively.

"Excellent!" Koeman exclaimed after hearing the story. In this other world, Libya was also occupied by Britain and France, but the occupied territories were divided into north and south. How was this division done? The British army occupied the coastal areas of northern Libya, while France was assigned to the south, which was entirely desert.

This division is certainly unfair to France, but Free France doesn't have many troops, so it naturally can't fight for the same treatment.

If there's anything different about this world, it's the land-scraping mobilization in French Syria—they practically conscripted men. They managed to scrape together 300,000 men to form the First French Army.

With troops at their disposal, there's no need to prepare a menu; the food can be served immediately. Although Britain could feign hegemony in front of France, some in Britain had already realized that in the post-war world, facing the two superpowers, the US and the USSR, they might need to rely on France for mutual support.

In order to win over France, Britain, for the first time since Napoleon, showed goodwill to France by agreeing to the proposed division of Libya into eastern and western parts.

After Admiral Dragon finished his presentation, Koman found a ruler and held it at a right angle at the easternmost point of Tunisia. "We want all the land west of this line. We want to wipe out all the local tribes. I don't know how far we've progressed."

“This is probably 200,000 square kilometers of land, maybe less.” General Dragon glanced at the angle of the ruler in Koman’s hand. If this idea were realized, Tripoli would become a border city, and the entire area from the easternmost point of Tunisia down to Algeria would become part of Algeria.

"We'll have to wait for the local army to report the specifics, but the 7th Infantry Division killed tens of thousands of tribal people there, so it shouldn't be a big problem," General Dragon replied.

Koeman thought for a moment and nodded. "We don't expect to occupy half of Libya, but Libya is an Italian colony, so it's still possible to secretly carve out about a tenth of its territory. We only have one chance like a world war, and if we don't seize it, God won't give us a second chance."

Libya's oil reserves have not yet been discovered. Libya's oil was discovered in the 1950s, and large commercial oil fields were not discovered until the 1960s.

Therefore, at this point in time, Libya still has little value and no value for united front work, so it cannot breed any unrest.

But that's all they can do. Koman has already demarcated what is equivalent to one-fifth of Libya's oil reserves. They can't demarcate any further east. Even Britain wouldn't agree to include Tripoli.

"And then there's Sardinia, where we are now. Does Father think it's possible for it to be incorporated into France?" Coman turned his attention back to Sardinia.

　Damn, I forgot where I set the operations manager.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)